Acid attacks: 7 women burned in two days

FAISALABAD: A total of seven women suffered acid attacks in the past two days in Faisalabad in separate incidents.

According to police officials, a first-year student suffered serious burns after being attacked in the limits of Police Station City Jaranwala. First year student Tayyiba was on her way back home from a local tuition academy when students Ali Raza and Hamza allegedly chased her and threatened her life.

“Both boys go to the same college as me and they were heckling me for not wearing a dupatta on my head. They tried to grab me and when I yelled at them they attacked me with acid,” Tayyiba told police officials before being admitted to the hospital. “She said that both men had said she ‘deserved for her face to be ruined because she had not covered her head’,” Station House Officer Malik Zafar Iqbal said.

The victim’s parents filed a complaint and approached the parents of the accused. “Instead of asking for forgiveness they opened fire on us and we barely managed to escape,” Tayyiba’s father Asad said. Area police filed a case on the report of Adnan, a brother of the victim, after having registered a case against the accused under Section 324, 511, & 34 PPC but no arrest has been madeso far. In another incident, a man and his two friends allegedly threw acid at his wife and five other women from her family. According to police officials, Chak 132 GB Dijkot resident Umar Hayat attacked his wife Nabila and five women of her family after she refused to leave with him. “The couple had quarrelled after he beat her several times. She came home saying she feared for her life and when he came to take her back she refused to leave,” Nabila’s father Muhammad Munir said. “He told her he would never hit her again if she left with him and when she refused he threw acid on her and all the other women,” he added.

Umar also attacked five women of Nabila’s family, who refused to let him take her from their house near the Nawan police station. Neighbours said that Umar Hayat had made several attempts to reconcile with his wife Nabila and had also approached elders and a Panchayat to intervene on his behalf.

“She refused to return with him. She kept saying that he beat her and that she did not want to put her life in danger,” a neighbour Manzoor said. On Thursday night, Umar Hayat, along with two of his accomplices, forced entry into the house of his in-laws by breaking the door when the family were asleep. Hayat sprayed acid on his wife Nabila, sisters-in-law Shakila Munir and Razia, mother in-law Riaz Bibi and Nazia, the wife of his brother in-law. The victims sustained serious injuries to their face and bodies.

All the burnt victims have been admitted to the Gojra Civil Hospital and are reportedly in serious condition. Three of the victims have sustained over 80 percent burns and are in critical condition.

“Three women are in critical condition and their faces have been completely burnt but the others are in recovery and have been admitted to the burns unit,” said Dr Rizwan Basheer. The condition of Skakila Munir is stated to be serious and she has been shifted to Allied Hospital.

Police officials have filed a report regarding the burning of Skalila and her family, on the request of her father Munir Ahmad.

A case vide FIR No. 207/2011 under Sections 324 and 336 PPC have been registered against Umar Hayat and his two other accomplices, but no arrest has been reported so far. SHO Nawan Lahore Ch Abdhul Majeed said that a police tem had been constituted for the arrest of the accused.